Penrice to close Australia's only soda ash plant; forms jv to import from ANSAC

9:33 AM MST | January 19, 2013 | Natasha Alperowicz

Penrice Soda Holdings (Adelaide), Australia’s only producer of soda ash, has announced that it will close permanently its loss-making soda ash manufacturing facility in June and will import the product instead. The company’s Osborne based facility, which uses the Solvay manufacturing process, will be shut down in June with the loss of 60 jobs. Penrice cites reduced domestic demand, in part due to domestic wine being bottled overseas, thus requiring less glass; strength of the Australian dollar; and high labor costs. Imported soda ash is more than 40%...